Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) will be living in Italy in the "Hannibal" Season 3 premiere. Photo: NBC

“Hannibal” returns Thursday with the Season 3 premiere of the popular NBC series. It has been a long wait for fans since Season 2’s shocking ending. What will Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) be up to in the big premiere?

Here are 7 things to know about “Hannibal” Season 3 before Thursday’s premiere:

1. Premiere Synopsis

When the show returns it will have been a few years since the events of the Season 2 finale. According to the synopsis for the new season’s first episode, “Antipasto,” the premiere will pick things up in Italy where Hannibal and his psychiatrist, Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson), will be hiding out in Italy after the carnage of the Season 2 finale. The pair will be posing as husband and wife and Hannibal will even have a new job at a local museum in Florence.

2. Episode Titles

The titles of the first three episodes have been revealed! They are listed below:

Episode 1 – “Antipasto”

Episode 2 – “Primavera”

Episode 3 – “Secondo”

Furthermore, the titles for episodes 7 and 8 have been released as well:

Episode 7 – “Digestivo”

Episode 8 – “The Great Red Dragon”

3. “Digestivo”

Back in January, “Hannibal” EP Bryan Fuller made a “weird” promise about “Digestivo,” the seventh episode of the new season.

IF YOU THOUGHT THE "HORSE-WITH-THE-CORPSE-IN-IT-WITH-THE-BIRD-IN-IT" WAS WEIRD, #HANNIBAL EPISODE30VII #DIGESTIVO IS MUCH, MUCH WEIRDER

Fuller is referring to a gruesome Season 2 scene where a body was found in the carcass of a horse with a dead bird inside. With no plot description available yet for “Digestivo,” it is hard to say what the new scene will entail, but fans might want to set their DVRs for that one.

4. Will’s New Bride

Hannibal is not the only one who will have a new wife when the show returns. Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) will be hitched in the new episodes as well. In fact, his new wife, Molly, even has a 12-year old son, so fans will get to see Will Graham the family man in Season 3!

The actress playing Will’s wife will be theatre vet Nina Arianda. Arianda, 30, is most famous for her role in the Broadway production of “Venus in Fur,” where, ironically, Hugh Dancy played her husband. In 2012, Arianda won a Tony award for Best Actress for “Venus in Fur” and has also been nominated for “Born Yesterday.” She has also appeared on film – “Win Win,” “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" and “Midnight in Paris” – and television – "30 Rock," "Hostages" and "The Good Wife."

5. Zachary Quinto

Zachary Quinto, most famous for playing Spock the J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” reboot, will appear in Season 3 as one of Bedelia’s other patients. The actor currently stars as Harry in the new NBC series “The Slap,” plays Ace in HBO’s “Girls,” and has previously appeared in “American Horror Story” as Dr. Oliver Thredson/Bloody Face. Quinto also previously worked with Bryan Fuller in “Heroes.”

6. The Red Dragon

The second half of Season 2 will draw heavily from the book “Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris. The chief villain of the novel, a serial killer named Francis Dolarhyde -- nicknamed the Tooth Fairy -- who murders whole families, will become the main antagonist in the show as well. The killer has an alter-ego that he calls the Red Dragon, who he alleges is responsible for his crimes. Richard Armitage will portray Dolarhyde, a role previously played by Ralph Fiennes in the 2002 film adaptation of “Red Dragon.”

7. Trailer

Watch the trailer for Season 3 below, highlighting Hannibal and Bedelia’s new relationship: